CHENGDU, China, Jan. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 12, Chengdu Jiaozi Financial Conference, co-hosted by Chengdu Municipal Local Financial Regulation Bureau, Sichuan Branch of Xinhua News Agency, and China Economic Information Service of Xinhua News Agency, was held at the Jiaozi Financial Museum in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone. The conference, themed "Jiaozi Culture and Financial Technology: Innovative Exploration of Western Financial Center Construction", aimed to jointly review the millennium-old Jiaozi culture and delve into the opportunities presented by financial technology.

During the conference, experts, scholars, and industry professionals engaged in in-depth discussions through keynote speeches, roundtable dialogues, and other activities. They focused on topics such as Jiaozi financial culture, the development of financial technology and banking business transformation, high-quality digitization transformation of capital markets, optimizing the innovation ecosystem of financial technology, and financial services for the real economy. The aim was to collectively explore the intrinsic relationship between Jiaozi culture and financial technology, as well as to explore the development opportunities for financial technology innovation, with the goal of providing insights and suggestions for the high-quality development of Chengdu's finance and the construction of the western financial center.

It is understood that the day of the conference also marked the 1000th anniversary of the birth of the world's first paper currency, Jiaozi, in Chengdu. Jiaozi's birth predates the appearance of European paper currency by more than 600 years, not only breaking the limitations of traditional metallic currency but also becoming a significant milestone in human's currency history. Today, within Chengdu Jiaozi Financial Museum, numerous precious artifacts on display shed light on the birth and development of Jiaozi, as well as the profound impact of its culture of integrity, open-mindedness, and innovative spirit on the subsequent development and transformation of finance.

In recent years, Chengdu has made remarkable achievements in the construction of the western financial center. It has vigorously implemented the "seven major projects", including the aggregation of financial institutions, enhancement of financial markets, modern financial characteristics, innovation-driven finance, expanded financial opening, optimized financial ecology, and interconnected financial infrastructure. Efforts have been focused on "five major areas", such as technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance. Finance has been continuously injecting "vitality" into the high-quality development of Chengdu's real economy, becoming a key element in promoting the smooth circulation and deep integration of innovation chains, industry chains, and talent chains in Chengdu.

As of now, Chengdu has more than 2,800 various intermediary and financial institutions. The research results of the "2023 China 'Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation' Financial Index" released by the China (Shenzhen) Development Institute at the conference also indicate that Chengdu's "Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation" financial index ranks first in the central and western regions.

Furthermore, the conference also unveiled the "Xinhua Silk Road Western Center". The establishment of this Center in Chengdu will be conducive to Chengdu leveraging national platform advantages and taking the opportunity of jointly building the western financial center by Chengdu and Chongqing to continue strengthening financial services related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).